Fortress Fallout Dev Receives Cease & Desist From Zenimax

should i ever make a game it will be named "Fallout Scrolls - The Dishonored Elder Doom Rage"
 
Lawyer should be able to clear this up in no time. It's very hard to claim copywrite and trademark on common english words.

Sorry Zenimax.
 
So now a common word is not able to be used or else Zenimax will send you a cease and desist letter?

Stay classy, Zenimax! :rolleyes:
 
if I were making this game... I'd take *every* opportunity to take a jab at Zenimax/Fallout in the game... and you can get away with it too if it's satire/comedy it's 100% legal.

Fuck zenimax and everything they own... their lawyers obviously have nothing better to do.

Cases like this... I seriously wouldn't mind seeing some rogue individual waiting in the parking lot for the guy who wrote that legal crap up, and pop him a few times in the knees with a tire iron.
 
collegeboy69us said:
if I were making this game... I'd take *every* opportunity to take a jab at Zenimax/Fallout in the game... and you can get away with it too if it's satire/comedy it's 100% legal.

Fuck zenimax and everything they own... their lawyers obviously have nothing better to do.

Cases like this... I seriously wouldn't mind seeing some rogue individual waiting in the parking lot for the guy who wrote that legal crap up, and pop him a few times in the knees with a tire iron.
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Wow over react much?!?!
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Wow over react much?!?!
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It made me laugh. And apparently you don't have enough of an imagination to put a picture of some random person ambushing some sleazebag lawyer as they are walking to their car, screaming at them, popping them in the knees a few times, and then running away.

Makes for a really funny mental image. :D
 
If I made a game called Fortress Half-Life, no doubt I would receive CnD letters from Valve. I don't think you guys would be flying into a rage about it either. But when a not-Valve developer does this? Grab your pitchforks.
collegeboy69us said:
Cases like this... I seriously wouldn't mind seeing some rogue individual waiting in the parking lot for the guy who wrote that legal crap up, and pop him a few times in the knees with a tire iron.
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Considering the above hypothetical, would you say the same thing about Gabe Newell? If Valve sent me a CnD regarding a game I was making called Fortress Half-Life, would you gleefully imagine their CEO being beaten with a tire iron?
 
Dude probably chose "fallout" hoping for some extra publicity. Guess it worked.
 
Unfortunately they are just trying to protect their trademarks. The law, stupid as it is, is that if they do not actively try to protect it, they lose it.
 
Does this mean I can copyright "2" and sue anyone who makes a sequel? This shit is getting out of hand.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Lawyer should be able to clear this up in no time. It's very hard to claim copywrite and trademark on common english words.

Sorry Zenimax.
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It's a video game with the word "Fallout" in the title. You can't tell me that, at first glance, you wouldn't expect it to be somehow associated with the Fallout franchise.
 
Parja said:
It's a video game with the word "Fallout" in the title. You can't tell me that, at first glance, you wouldn't expect it to be somehow associated with the Fallout franchise.
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Fallout -- the word, the idea, the meaning, existed long long before the video game.

If I take something that gets super popular, and associate it with the word "laptop"... do I suddenly own and control who can use the word laptop? And if you say or write down the word laptop without my expressed consent, I'll sue you! Get real.



Maybe go and see what the guys game is about before automatically assuming everything, if he keeps his art, his story, and his theme all his own, 100% unrelated to anything "fallout universe" what's the problem?

In the history of "dick moves" by lawyers... this is small potatoes, but no one can deny there are lawyers out there that staight up deserve a swift slam to the knees for some of the things they have pulled on people.

I still firmly believe that if you want to fix part of our justice system you do two things... 1) institute a "loser pays" system... if you really want to bring suit against someone because you got high on crack and burned your house down... fine, just know if you lose, you will be paying out the ass for the rest of your life. 2) swift death penalty for anyone associated with the court who's found guilty of corruption. So sick of seeing crooked judges, cops, etc... get away with crap simply because they can.

All it would take is 1 or 2 people put to death before people realized "oh crap, they are serious this time, I'd better straighten up and fly right"
 
collegeboy69us said:
Fallout -- the word, the idea, the meaning, existed long long before the video game.
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But in the context of a video game, the word "Fallout" has a well-established meaning. If he were creating some sort of non-video game product with Fallout in the name that would be a whole different story.

If I take something that gets super popular, and associate it with the word "laptop"... do I suddenly own and control who can use the word laptop? And if you say or write down the word laptop without my expressed consent, I'll sue you! Get real.
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So you would be just as up in arms if HP came out with an "HP MacBook" and Apple sued? Because that's the parallel here.
 
Parja said:
But in the context of a video game, the word "Fallout" has a well-established meaning. If he were creating some sort of non-video game product with Fallout in the name that would be a whole different story.



So you would be just as up in arms if HP came out with an "HP MacBook" and Apple sued? Because that's the parallel here.
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No it isn't. Fallout is a general word with a meaning that you can look up in the dictionary. That's not parallel to using Macbook.
 
cyclone3d said:
So now a common word is not able to be used or else Zenimax will send you a cease and desist letter?

Stay classy, Zenimax! :rolleyes:
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If people can copyright "saga" then why not "fallout"? I don't think it will be a big problem though
 
cvinh said:
No it isn't. Fallout is a general word with a meaning that you can look up in the dictionary. That's not parallel to using Macbook.
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Alright, fine. Bad example.

How about if HP came out with a new laptop called the Latitude instead?
 
Parja said:
Alright, fine. Bad example.

How about if HP came out with a new laptop called the Latitude instead?
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Still not the same.

Fortress Fallout does not make me think of any of the Fallout games.

All of the Fallout games start with the word Fallout.

A different game that just has the word Fallout in it, not at the beginning of the name should be just fine.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
Lawyer should be able to clear this up in no time. It's very hard to claim copywrite and trademark on common english words.

Sorry Zenimax.
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Yes and no.

They may be trying to protect their trademark - knowing they would lose.

If you don't try to actively protect your trademark, then in a subsequent case where someone really is doing something infringing, they can cite all of the instances where you didn't do anything as evidence that the trademark was abandoned/not enforced. Since these this are up for interpretation it forces companies to file these lame lawsuits. It's kind of shitty, but that's how it is.
 
Parja said:
It's a video game with the word "Fallout" in the title. You can't tell me that, at first glance, you wouldn't expect it to be somehow associated with the Fallout franchise.
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That depends. If the game was titled, "Fallout: Fortress" then yes I could see hwo you might be left with that impression. If the game was titled, "Fallout Turbo Racing", then no.
 
He isn't calling the game Fallout: Fortress. THAT would be a problem to the Fallout franchise.

He's calling it Fortress Fallout. Completely different grammatical meaning and Zenimax can't claim complete ownership of the word fallout no matter how it is used in a sentence.

If a claim like that were to hold up, then we'd already be out of words in the dictionary to use for game names.
 
Is it dumb, yes. By just having the word fallout in a game title, they can tell you to stop/sue.

Easiest fix, just name the game Fortress Fall. I just generally looked at the game and it looks like you blow up fortresses and stuff? And close enough to just be like a good middle finger to them over the trademark issue.
 
Steam will be next with Fortress. The way Trademarks work, is you have to defend them or you lose them. Go ahead and make an Apple something. See what happens.

Read here: AZ Central Trademark info.
 
ol1bit said:
Steam will be next with Fortress. The way Trademarks work, is you have to defend them or you lose them. Go ahead and make an Apple something. See what happens.

Read here: AZ Central Trademark info.
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There's an alternative to defend-it-or-lose-it. The owner of the trademark can agree to license the use of the trademark (for free) to the person wanting to use it.
 
I've played every Fallout game there is starting with Black Isle Studios, when the games came out. I've put many hours into them. And on initial look, before I read this article or anything, I didn't think it was related to the Fallout Universe, because that would have had a totally different feeling for me.

Fallout is a word. If you're a lawyer, or something rude, it may mean something different to you, but I'm just a common man, and for me, it didn't mean much here, and certainly didn't conjure up feelings of joy at a new Fallout Universe game.
 
Parja said:
It's a video game with the word "Fallout" in the title. You can't tell me that, at first glance, you wouldn't expect it to be somehow associated with the Fallout franchise.
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So here's the deal, you can't copywrite/patent common words. Supreme Court said so. The issue came from AMD versus Intel, when intel tried to sue AMD for using 386, 486 etc in their product names to indicate equivalency in terms of sockets. Supreme Court said, "You can't trademark numbers or common words, otherwise there would be nothing left to ordinary business to use to describe their product"

That's why you see companies/channels like Sci-Fi (common word) changing their name to SyFy (Non common word) One is not trademark-able, the other is.
 
ol1bit said:
Steam will be next with Fortress. The way Trademarks work, is you have to defend them or you lose them. Go ahead and make an Apple something. See what happens.

Read here: AZ Central Trademark info.
Click to expand...

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ol1bit said:
Steam will be next with Fortress. The way Trademarks work, is you have to defend them or you lose them. Go ahead and make an Apple something. See what happens.

Read here: AZ Central Trademark info.
Click to expand...

The question isn't defending a trademark. The question is whether generic single words should be eligible for trademark.

imho, only word combinations of 2 or more words not already in common use or invented words should be trademarkable.
 
Parja said:
Alright, fine. Bad example.

How about if HP came out with a new laptop called the Latitude instead?
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More like what if HP came out with a new laptop called the Highest Latitude, or Divergent Latituted or something. Then that would be a better comparison.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
So here's the deal, you can't copywrite/patent common words. Supreme Court said so. The issue came from AMD versus Intel, when intel tried to sue AMD for using 386, 486 etc in their product names to indicate equivalency in terms of sockets. Supreme Court said, "You can't trademark numbers or common words, otherwise there would be nothing left to ordinary business to use to describe their product"

That's why you see companies/channels like Sci-Fi (common word) changing their name to SyFy (Non common word) One is not trademark-able, the other is.
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Source? 'Cuz you sure as hell can trademark a number.
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:xi3meo.5.12

Also...
http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:xi3meo.4.13
 
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